


Built to Last

by indigo (indigo_angels)



Series: Fairy Dust [5]
Category: The A-Team (2010), The A-Team - All Media Types
Genre: AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-02
Updated: 2018-04-02
Packaged: 2019-04-17 07:33:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14184042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indigo_angels/pseuds/indigo
Summary: Unwelcome visitors threaten to disrupt Face’s new life.





	Built to Last

Face reached out and grabbed hold of Hannibal’s wrist, flipping it over to see the face of his watch. “Fuck,” he muttered, flopping back in his seat, head thudding against the truck’s tarp, “we’re never gonna catch that transport, boss.”

Hannibal’s filthy hand, dried blood still crusted around the fingernails landed briefly on Face’s knee and squeezed. “We’ll make it,” but Face just shook his head, his own grubby hands raking through his hair.

“We won’t. We still have...” he glanced at the back of BA’s head where he was sat up front next to the driver, “... _things_ to do before we can leave.”

His voice was quiet, the sound of the engines and Murdock’s singing were loud, but still BA heard, turning in his seat and fixing Face with a hard stare. “The boss says we’ll make it then we’ll make it. None of them ‘things’ you have to do have anything to do with me – right?” he turned his scowl back onto the road ahead.

Face was confused and turned his head to Hannibal who just smiled at him and squeezed his leg again. This getting back in the game thing he’d been doing had been incredibly easy when compared to the shit he’d had to deal with over the last four years, but it had still been with its complications, its surprises and its changes – the biggest one of which had been BA’s _unwillingness_ to fly. BA had never been the most relaxed air passenger, a fact he blamed quite loudly and regularly on Murdock’s mad escape in Mexico which had seen him almost plummeting to his death out of the open chopper door. But Face had been shocked with the deterioration he’d missed in his three years away, the first time he’d seen BA willingly take a needle in the neck, just to get him comatose enough to step onto the aircraft, his eyes had almost bugged out of his head. He wondered how on earth Hannibal managed to swing that, and Airborne Ranger, afraid to fly, but then he also had a pilot with questionable sanity and an XO who had resigned his commission once already, so really, what the hell difference did BA make? And anyway, who was Face to comment on a guy’s fears and neurosis? He himself had enough to write a thesis on, so... yeah. 

But all that carry on, drugging BA up and waiting until he was far enough gone to get on the plane always took so long, and today – well, they just didn’t have that time. 

“Bosco’s gonna fly naked today,” Murdock announced, breaking out of his song long enough to offer up that crucial nugget of information. Face blinked at him, knowing that he wasn’t referring to his state of clothing but rather his state of doping and wondered how Murdock, as always, seemed to know exactly what was going on inside the head of every member of the team. “You’re not the only one keen to get back you know Faceman!” he added before sliding straight back into, ‘Does your Mama Know?’ and his own, X-rated version of the lyrics. 

BA didn’t move, keeping his eyes fixed firmly on the dirt track they were currently bumping along, but their driver kept shooting surreptitious glances at him, right up until BA growled, “Watch the road, sucka,” in a voice that made the young Private glue his eyes on the track ahead. Face felt Hannibal huff in amusement next to him and the hand was back on his knee squeezing again.

“We’ll make it, kid,” Hannibal’s voice was tired, but there was no mistaking the certainty in his tone and Face tried to force some of that confidence into his own head; it didn’t work however, and instead he just leaned forward and stared nervously out of the window.

His nervousness didn’t abate even when they did get onto the transport in time as promised. He spent as much of the flight as he could pacing up and down the cramped hold, squashing his nose up against the tiny window in the emergency door and asking Murdock how much longer he thought they would be.

Murdock was sitting next to BA, who in turn had his headphones on loud and his eyes shut tight, and he seemed to have both unlimited patience with Face’s constant questions and an uncanny ability to know exactly where they were without looking at a single chart or instrument. “Another hour, an’ we’ll be down, Face,” he finally announced, pulling a DC comic from his bag. “Why don’t you go an’ scrub up a bit.”

Face didn’t answer, just paced back to the window and then over to Hannibal, lifting his wrist again and sighing at the time on his watch. 

“Where’s your own watch, kid?” Hannibal asked from behind his closed eyelids. 

“Busted,” Face replied, running filthy hands through filthy hair. “When I went into that ravine.”

Hannibal frowned at the memory of Face disappearing over the edge of the rocky outcrop in pursuit of the last fleeing insurgents. His heart had gone into his mouth and stayed there until he caught up with him, breathing hard, covered in blood and standing in the creek next to two floating bodies. He had hoped that Face’s shift in responsibilities would make him more careful of the risks he took in the field, but so far, in the six missions they’d done as a reunited team, he hadn’t seen much evidence of that.

Cracking an eye open, Hannibal turned to watch him now, covered in pond filth and blood and looking fit to burst with nerves. “Face,” he said gently, repeating it more loudly until he had those blue eyes fixed on him. “Another hour Murdock said, that’s all. Go and wash up and get changed.”

Face glanced distractedly down at his clothes. “No, I’m fine, I’ll get changed when we get home.”

Face’s casual use of that one word always made Hannibal’s heart flip in joy, but it didn’t help take the kid’s mind off the constantly counting clock. “You’re covered in blood,” he reminded instead.

Shrugging, Face paced back over to the window, “It’s not mine.”

Murdock laughed at that and Hannibal shook his head. “You gonna get the time to explain that then are you? When we get back?”

There was a pause as Face thought about this, then a groan as he realised the truth of the words, turning to stalk across the hold and grab his duffel before heading for the tiny washroom at the back. It was only when he was in, squashed up against the sink so that the concertina door would close, that he got a good look at himself and conceded that, yes, a wash and a change of clothing would in fact be an excellent idea. He rooted around in his bag and managed to come up with another pair of combats, another t-shirt and a solitary sock. None of them were actually clean, but they were all a damn sight cleaner than the clothes he was wearing which were probably fit for nothing more than the trash right now. He peeled the filthy layers off, wincing as they tugged on his various scratches and grazes and stood for a moment with them in his hand before just sighing and shoving them back into his bag. 

Within a few minutes he was naked, and he’d just started filling the tiny sink with a dribble of tepid water when the door behind him started opening. “Whoa, whoa, whoa!!!” he called, scrabbling to keep it closed, “Occupied!”

“It’s me.” The voice was nothing more than a low growl and with a frown Face stepped back.

“Boss, I don’t think this is such a good idea you know, that flight crew were already-”

He was effectively silenced by the lips that seized his own and the hands that took hold of his hips, one on either side, to hold him still while Hannibal kissed him. Face had learnt a lot during the last nine months, but possibly the thing that surprised him the most was how his body had become hard wired to Hannibal and his touch. The man barely had to look at him right and he’d have Face panting and desperate, and this, this kiss, deep and slow, combined with the two gentle palms just resting on his hip bones, well that was enough to get him showing an interest in seconds.

“Forget them,” Hannibal whispered as he bent to press little angel kisses onto Face’s filthy neck. “You’re far too tense, let me help you out a little.” 

He was about to object, to tell Hannibal that they couldn’t do this now, that he had to get washed and dressed and be ready to land, but just as the words formed in his mouth, one of Hannibal’s hands slid from his hip and trailed slowly around to his half-hard cock, letting just the finger pads trail down its rapidly awakening length and he was lost. Hannibal’s mouth moved back up and found his again, swallowing the little sound of pleasure he made as finger tips were switched for a strong, tight fist, and his own hands crept up, holding on to his man’s shoulders, letting him take control and keep him standing and trusting him as implicitly as he always did.

It didn’t take long. The last eight days had been full of stress and exhaustion, no time for anything more than a fleeting touch between them, and Face lived for contact. He closed his eyes, let Hannibal lead and kissed his way through it, exploding within minutes into the carefully positioned paper towel at his hip. 

He came back to his senses, leaning boneless legs against the sink unit and lifted heavy eyes up to Hannibal, the edges of a smile playing on his lips.

“Feel better?” Hannibal asked him, his own mouth quirking.

“Much.” Face reached for Hannibal’s zipper, but with a quick press of lips, the colonel moved away.

“No time,” he whispered and with a jolt Face realised that was true as he could feel the plane starting its decent. “And anyway, I wasn’t the one that was so tense I couldn’t breathe.” That was probably true as well, even if it did cause Face to flush at the words. With one final wink, Hannibal slid out of the flimsy doors and left Face standing against the sink, just as filthy and naked as before, but probably slightly less stressed.

There was a jeep waiting for them on the tarmac, and BA just about bowled everyone else over in his haste to get out of the transport and into its nice safe ground-based wheels. Face slid into the backseats, and was soon sandwiched between Hannibal’s solid calm and Murdock’s excited bouncing. The drive was fairly uneventful but nowhere near fast enough for Face who had now taken Hannibal’s watch into his hand and stared at it almost as much as he stared at the road ahead as they wove through the early afternoon traffic.

Eventually, they were there, and Face was shoving Murdock out onto the sidewalk so that he could scramble out after him, leaving Hannibal to thank the driver and the others to grab their bags he just sprinted up the path, hardly glancing at all the pastel coloured bunting fluttering in the sun-dappled trees. He burst through the front door and his ears were immediately assailed by a house full of high-pitched screams, popping balloons and Disney songs. He followed the sound trail into the living room, his boots leaving dusty mud on the polished wood floor and froze as everything stopped around him. Every single pink or lilac frilled girl skidded to a halt, balloons bobbing furiously at the ends of their ribbons, every single neatly groomed mom paused with their coffee cup midway to their lips staring at the filthy and dishevelled soldier that had burst into their midst. Even Balou reached the end of his song and the room slipped into silence, right up until the particularly high pitched squeal that came from the back of the room followed by a shout of, “Daddy!” and the sound of thundering footsteps. 

Face turned to the footsteps and was just in time to catch a flash of pink and white with dark hair before he was almost knocked on his ass by the missile-like entrance of his daughter. “Daddy!” she shrieked again as he gathered her up. “You came!” Screwing his eyes against the prickling tears, Face held her close, drinking in that familiar baby shampoo smell and squeezing her as hard as he dared.

“I did,” he whispered in her ear. “Happy Birthday, beautiful!” 

Face would have quite happily stayed there all day, holding Sophia close to him and enjoying every second of their reunion, but of course, Sophia herself had other ideas and within seconds was squirming in his arms. “Look at my dress!” she was saying, a stray foot catching him right in the groin. “Look at it, Daddy, it’s so pretty!”

Wincing, Face set her down as the others arrived behind him, Adele appeared to greet them and the music kicked up again with a blast from Mulan. The second her feet touched the floor Sophia spun around, stumbling in her eagerness to show off her dress and Face whistled through his teeth even as he caught her arm. “Wow, that’s beautiful! You look gorgeous! Where did you get such a pretty dress?”

He already knew the answer of course, there was only one place that dress could have come from, the same place as the bunting and the balloons and the streamers and the huge pink princess castle cake and the whole damn party. “Momma!” Sophia shrieked and then was gone again, back out into the garden with her friends chasing round and around the hired bouncy castle that was still inflating in the sunshine. 

Face turned to Adele just as she appeared behind him and they instantly embraced. Face was only supposed to have been gone five days, he was supposed to have been back in plenty of time to sort out this party and Sophia’s birthday, but of course missions don’t always play by the rules. “Thank you so much,” he whispered from the depth of his hug and Adele just squeezed him tighter. 

“Don’t you mention it, baby. You know I’d do anything for those kids, you know how much I love them.”

And Face did. Adele had taken his kids to her heart just like the rest of the team had. As much as they lived in three separate houses between them, they were nothing less than one big family and Face sometimes couldn’t sleep at night for the wonder of it all. “I must owe you a fortune,” he mumbled, stuck for the words to say how precious this all was to him.

Adele, however, seemed to understand. She pulled back and put a hand on his stubbled cheek. “I knew you’d fuss so I took it from the house money, okay?” Face laughed and nodded. “So, no more of that. I knew you’d all make it back in time, there’s sausages in the oven and beer in the fridge, just relax a while.”

More shrieking from the garden told Face that the bouncy castle was up and he glanced over to see Murdock and Sophia, hand in hand, bouncing right in the middle. “Where’s Jonathan?” he asked suddenly worried that his stilling-crawling son would get trampled in all the chaos. 

“Right here,” Hannibal’s deep voice sounded behind him and he turned to see Jonathan reaching out for him from Hannibal’s arms. He took him, and kissed his cheeks before lifting him high and blowing raspberries on his stomach, making him shriek with joy. He felt Hannibal’s hand resting on the small of his back as the oven timer started beeping and Adele headed back towards the kitchen. The smell of cooking sausages was making his MRE filled stomach growl in anticipation and the sight of BA weaving through all the wild children with a handful of beer bottles brought a grin to his face. 

“See kid,” Hannibal held a brightly coloured party hat out to Jonathan. “I told you we’d make it.”

Face couldn’t answer, but with his kids, his friends, his family, his home, his health, a bottle of beer and the promise of good food to come, he honestly felt like he was right at the top of the world. 

_______________________

The sun was warm on Hannibal’s back and he found it was lulling him into a sleep he didn’t want. He was glad that they had eventually stumbled into bed just short of 2100 last night, it had felt ridiculously early at the time to be following Sophia and Jonathan as soon as they had cleared up after the party, but now he wondered if he’d be awake at all if they’d had a later night. As it was the 0800 debrief had been a struggle to attend, made all the more difficult by the fact that the kids had both been up as well and were less than keen on letting Face out of their sight so soon after getting him back.

Eventually, Momma Baracus saved the day yet again, arriving earlier than the time Face had asked her to come and distracting the children with pancakes so that the men could get ready and be out on time. It had still been tight though, and Hannibal glanced surreptitiously at the clock across the room, 1057. With a bit of luck they should be out in time to take Momma and Jonathan out for lunch before they needed to get back and collect Sophia from Pre-K, a bit of a thank you for all she had done for them while they had been away.

The door opening behind him broke into his train of thought and reminded him that he was supposed to be listening to General Cook’s assessment of where the assembled Alpha Teams should go now after this latest round of intelligence gathering. He watched impassively as Cook’s secretary, a short, dark haired beauty called Jasmine, walked silently across the room to bend and whisper in the General’s ear. He nodded and Hannibal’s stomach tightened as he immediately turned to Face. “Peck,” his voice was businesslike but by no means annoyed. “Call for you out front. Urgent.”

Face’s expression didn’t falter, not even as his eyes flicked up to Hannibal for that briefest of moments as he pushed his chair back. “Thank you, sir,” he murmured as he left the room and suddenly Hannibal realised that he now had no hope in hell of being able to concentrate on the de-brief until his return. 

It didn’t come, however. Five minutes after Face had left the room, Jasmine was back, giving his apologies and citing a “personal emergency”. Hannibal restricted his expression to ‘concerned CO’ rather than ‘half-panicked lover’ and felt the text buzz in his pocket that was undoubtedly his explanation from Face. Ignoring it for now, he turned back to the conversation around the table and valiantly tried to concentrate until the time came when he would be able to look at the message and see what had pulled Face away so suddenly.

___________________

The traffic was mercifully light as Face sped off the highway and into the quiet estate where Hannibal’s house lay. He risked the wrath of GHP by texting as he drove, but managed to make the journey in one piece, pulling up behind the black Cadillac CTS-V parked outside the house. As he climbed out of his own beat-up SUV, he mentally calculated how much a car like that would cost – not only to buy, but to fuel and insure as well. Half a year’s wages he concluded and shook his head as he started down the path to the front door. 

A mixture of anger and fear churned inside him as he let himself into the cool hallway, striding straight into the main room where three people sat in silence, sipping coffee and obviously waiting for him. He gave two of them nothing more than a cursory glance as he walked in and tossed his car keys down onto the table, but turned to Adele Baracus as she rose to her feet and forced a tight smile her way. “Adele, are you alright? You and Jonathan?”

“We’re fine, honey,” she soothed him. “I’d just put him down for his nap so he’d be done for lunch, he’s still sleeping now.” Face nodded, torn between wanting to go and check for himself and worrying about waking his son which would make the next hour even more complicated than it already threatened to be. “I’ll go and wait upstairs,” she told him, making for the doorway. “When he wakes up I’ll take him to the park for an hour, give you folks chance to talk.”

Neither of the two visitors reacted to this but Face smiled his empty smile once more and gripped her fingers as she passed him.

The room slid into silence as Adele’s footsteps sounded up the wooden stairs and Face walked to the window sill, perching himself on the edge, arms folded, and eyes hard. “Right then,” he said quietly and there was no mistaking the anger in his voice. “Would someone like to explain to me just what the hell you thought you were doing trying to take my daughter out of the Pre-K like that? You were lucky they called Adele and not the police. What on earth did you think was going to happen? That they would just hand her over to a couple of complete strangers like that?”

The woman looked down at her clasped hands in silence, but the man rose steadily to his feet, his dark eyes boring into Face across the room. “Complete strangers?” he asked, the outrage clear in his words. “We’re hardly that are we? We’re her god-damned Grandparents in case you’d forgotten!”

Face didn’t flinch. “Of course I haven’t forgotten. But to the staff at the Pre-K, hell to _Sophia_ , you may as well be complete strangers.”

“And whose fault’s that?” David Sosa took a step in with his words but still Face didn’t twitch.

“Sure as hell not mine. I’ve never stopped you from seeing them.”

“No? You just move them half the world away from us!”

Face rolled his eyes. “You never heard of planes, David? It’s not like you lack the time or the money to see them.”

“How have they been?” Portia Sosa took that moment to interrupt the men, and Face flicked his gaze down to her earnest face, with the red rimmed eyes that told their own story of the scene at the Pre-K.

“They’ve been fine,” he told her, forcing something like calm into his voice. “They’ve settled in beautifully. Jonathan goes in the crèche two mornings a week, and Sophia is at Pre-K for two whole days. They’ve got lots of friends and are having a ball.”

“They should be at home,” David barked, bringing Face’s eyes back to him. “With their mother.”

There was a long silence following those words and it was hard for Face to guess who was the most uncomfortable between him and Portia. “In case _you’ve_ forgotten,” he finally forced out, “they don’t have a mother. And when they did she was never really that keen on staying at home with them anyway.” He regretted Portia’s sob at his words, but really, David Sosa was a grade-A prick. 

“Is that so?” and there he was now, in full prick mode. “Maybe she might have felt a little more like it if she’d had a real man she could have relied on to go out and earn their keep!”

Face just tightened his arms and turned to stare out at the garden. It wasn’t the first time he’d heard a slur like that, when they were together it was an almost weekly event, one that Charissa seemed happy to ignore and Face had been powerless to stop without her. He liked to think that the old man’s poisonous barbs couldn’t hurt him anymore, but the evidence was currently pointing to the contrary. “What do you want here?” he asked instead.

“What do you think we want?” David Sosa was still over-brimming with anger and Face could feel his own stepping back up in response. “It’s Sophia’s birthday! We’d like to see our only grand-daughter on her birthday! Is there a law against that?”

“No,” Face swivelled his eyes back into the room. “But there is a law against rocking up at a child care centre and expecting to walk off with one of the kids. You never thought of calling me first?”

“Calling you?” Sosa’s eyes were wide as he edged closer to Face once more. “Why would we have to call you? We don’t need to ask your permission to see them!”

Face held his stare. “Well, unfortunately you do. I’m their only surviving parent and you, as grandparents, have absolutely no rights over them at all. At all,” he emphasised. 

There was a silence that followed his words, one so thick and complete that Face felt his heart start beating even harder inside his chest. 

“You’d stop us from seeing them?” Portia’s voice, right on the edge of tears, shattered that moment and got Face onto his feet, his hand up in his hair.

“Hell, no,” he said, his eyes imploring her to believe him. “I told you that, I’ve always told you that. You can see then whenever you want. You just need to tell me that’s all, make sure I know what’s going on. I don’t want to split them from their family.”

Portia smiled at him, a thin, watery smile and looked like she was about to speak, but David Sosa beat her to it. “Tell you? Ask you, more like! I don’t know who the hell you think you are!”

Face rubbed his brow. “Their father, David. Deal with it.” 

For a brief second, Face tensed, waiting for David to step up his verbal assault, but to his surprise, the older man just stopped and put his hands on his hips, forcing out a long and loud exhale. “Look, Templeton,” he said quietly and Face frowned, he’d never called him that before, never, not even around the table at Thanksgiving had anything other than a reluctant ‘Peck’ left his lips. “I know all this has been very hard for you.”

Face stayed quiet, but he felt his hackles rise, he didn’t like the way this was going at all. 

“I know that you would never have married Charissa if it wasn’t for Sophia, and really, no one can blame you for feeling trapped by the children and your responsibilities.” Face felt the tension in his jaw increase. “It’s a lot for any man to take on, especially one with such a poor experience of families.” And that hurt – as it was clearly meant to. 

“But now you have managed to claw something of your life back again, persuade Smith to take another chance on you, it must be hard to have that offer and need to juggle it with the wants of two demanding children,” he shook his head sympathetically. “The drain on your emotions and energy and money must be immense, imagine having to rely on the hired help just to go on a mission!”

Right on cue, the front door closed as the ‘hired help’ steered Jonathan’s carrier out into the sunshine, and Face’s fists clenched as he hoped she hadn’t heard that last comment.

David took a step in. “Let us help,” he offered. “Let us take them off your hands. You can still visit them, birthdays, Christmas, the important times, but you’ll be free to live your own life, you can get on and do what you want to do without being weighed down by their presence.” He leaned forward a little, “You can sleep with whoever you want, imagine that, _whoever you want_ with no awkward mornings in the kitchen. Perfect.”

He smiled and Face forced himself to stay quiet, to stay still, to not even breathe, not until he’d counted to thirty, otherwise he wasn’t sure what he might have done. 

“No thank you,” eventually, expression tight, he managed to force out an answer. “That won’t be necessary.”

There was a second’s hesitation from David as he considered that response, then the false smile was back. “Come on, Face! You know that this is the right thing. You? Bringing up those babies?” He laughed. “I don’t think so. You think that’s what Charissa would want? Them living with their loser, playboy father? Or having a steady and stable home with us?”

“I think you are forgetting,” Face’s voice sounded far away in his own head, like he was at the very end of a long tunnel separating him from his anger, “that Charissa gave me full custody of them, just before she went out on that last mission. I think that sums her wishes up pretty well.”

Again, David considered him. “You don’t want to do this,” he eventually offered, this time his voice dark and dangerous.

“I do. They are my children. Back off.”

The silence buzzed through the thick heat of the room and somewhere down the road a lawn mower started up, the simple domesticity of its drone in direct counterpoint to the tension in the room. 

“Think about the devastation that could come,” Sosa’s voice was so low it hardly registered, “to you and to Smith, if word got out that you were lovers.” 

And suddenly, despite that heat, Face was chilled to the bone although he managed to force out a credible impression of a laugh. “Wow. You are desperate, coming up with a story like that.”

Sosa nodded. “But it wouldn’t take much, to get that rumour out there. God knows there have always been enough people wondering, Charissa always did for one.” Face kept his expression carefully blank, even though that nugget of information was news to him. “Your careers would be ruined before you even had the chance to shout, ‘Straight!’.”

Face shook his head. “That would be a hell of a lot of effort for nothing though David, surely you see that?”

“You think the repeal of DADT will save you? Not a chance, boy.”

“No,” Face pushed up from the window sill and took a step towards Sosa. “I think you’d be crazy to even try that when I have full and undisputed rights over the children. I’d stop you from seeing them so fast that you wouldn’t know what hit you. You are only welcome in their lives as long as you are not tying to ruin them. I’d sue you for slander. I’d drag you through every court in the land and paint you as the biggest homophobic bigot that ever walked the earth. And all that with my children by my side and my career intact, because, yes, there is no such thing as DADT anymore, and I know, for certain, that no judge would even consider taking them away from me, a serving member of the US Army, a widower at that, without a reason a million times stronger than anything you could ever come up with.” 

They stared at each other. 

“You want to risk that, David? You want to risk never seeing them again? The only thing they’d remember of you was how you tried to ruin their lives?”

Sosa’s eyes were black like coal as he closed the gap between himself and Face. “You arrogant little shit,” he whispered. “You think you can get away with stealing my grandchildren like you stole my daughter? Driving a wedge between us the way you did?” He shook his head. “Guess again playboy. You want to play dirty? I can play dirty. But I don’t think you’ll like my rules.”

Face’s smirk was cold and taunting. “Try me.”

“Oh, I’ll try you alright! I’ll do more than try you! I’ll fucking-”

“Stop!” 

The shout from the back of the room startled both the men into glancing around and Face’s eyes widened in surprise as he saw Portia Sosa take a step towards them, her fists clenched and her furious eyes on her husband. “For God’s sake David!” she shouted. “Just stop this, will you?!”

“Portia,” David’s voice was liquid ice. “Sit back down and let me handle this.”

“Handle this? Or ruin it?” Portia’s eyes were bright with tears but they held a shine of steel that Face had never seen before. “This whole stupid thing has gone far enough. We should be _supporting_ Templeton, not attacking him! He’s lost his home, his _wife_ , his children have lost their mother, you _know_ he has no family of his own – what is wrong with you?!”

“Nothing is _wrong_ with me!” David’s eyes were flicking from Portia to Face and back. “We’ve discussed this. We agreed that the children would be better off with us, now shut up and sit down!”

“ _You_ discussed it!” Portia shot back, ignoring the command that had been thrown her way. “ _You_ decided what was good for the children! My views were never considered!”

“Darling...”

“Don’t try that, David, it won’t work. I never stood up and stopped you driving our daughter away, making her feel like she needed to join up just to prove herself to you, that she needed to run off and get killed in a warzone just to make you stop wishing she’d been born a boy! I never stopped that – but I’m sure as hell not going to let you do the same to our grandchildren!” David blinked at her. “Look around you, David. Open your eyes and _look_ around you! This isn’t a house! It’s a home, it’s _their_ home and they are happy here! Very happy! Don’t you dare spoil that for them!” 

Face flicked his eyes around the room, following Portia’s gaze and saw the children’s pictures on the walls, the certificate Sophia had won at Pre-K for her Spanish, the painted dinosaur made from Jonathan’s handprints. Then there was the cereal-box-monster on the fireplace, the photograph of Murdock and BA with a child on each of their shoulders taken at the spring fair, the cards, covered in hearts, that Sophia made for Face on an almost daily basis. Finally, his eyes lingered on the pictures of Charissa – one with her children and one by herself, Face’s favourite photo of her, smiling at the camera on a blowy beach day at Cape May. He’d seen them all before, of course he had, every day he was home he saw them and smiled at the them. But he’d never looked at them like that, as an exhibition of their lives here, and found he had to blink away the tears in his eyes as he thought, for at least the tenth time that day alone, how lucky he was to have those people in his life. All of them.

David, however, didn’t seem to see it that way. 

“What?” was his only comment on the things that Portia was trying to show him and he shook his head, turning his back on her as he zeroed back in on Face, but Portia was nowhere near finished with him. 

“If you even consider taking this stupidity any further, then you will be doing it on your own,” she stated, walking slowly across the polished wooden floor until she was standing at Face’s side. “I will not help you rip Charissa’s family apart.”

“Family?” David’s eyes were bugging out on stalks. “They weren’t a family! He was too busy screwing around behind our baby’s back for that!”

Face shook his head. It wasn’t the first time he’d heard that either and he knew from experience that it was a waste of time trying to set the record straight with David. Plus he had no real desire to drag Charissa’s name through the mud when she was no longer here to put across her side of the story.

“David...” Face couldn’t see Portia’s face, but he could hear the sigh in her voice. “That’s not what happened. Templeton wasn’t the one that was having the affair.”

“Don’t!” Sosa yelled, taking a step towards his wife, his eyes so wild that Face found himself getting ready to step in. “Don’t you dare start believing his lies against your own child!”

“They’re not lies.”

“Of course they are lies! Everything out of his mouth is a god-dammed lie! You don’t know half the things I heard about him when I was still in the army!” Face’s stomach tightened at that. “And do you hear him protesting his innocence now? No. Because he god damn knows that he’s in the wrong!”

Face martialed his thoughts and prepared to step in, but Portia beat him to it. “Oh, wise up David will you?” she snapped. “He’s never badmouthed Charissa to us, he’s far too loyal for that. And I know that she was the one having the affair because she was the one who told me!”

A stunned silence followed those words, Face staring at the back of her head with a shocked expression to match David’s.

“What?” Sosa breathed out just as Face whispered, “When?”

Portia turned to face him, tears in her eyes. “About a month before she died,” she held his eyes. “She told me over lunch, said that she was confused, didn’t know what to do.”

“Did she love him?” Face almost kicked himself as the words slipped out of his mouth, but it was something that he’d always wondered, had always eaten away at his soul. 

Flushing a little, Portia shook her head. “No. But she wasn’t sure she loved you either.” Face just dropped his gaze, he’d always known that. “She promised me she was going to let you know, that she had it all planned out,” and Face closed his eyes, memories of walking into their bedroom and seeing her with Lopez – he doubted that her mother realised what Charissa’s plan for letting him know had entailed.

“And that’s why we need to do this!” David’s cold voice made them both turn to where he was standing in the centre of the room, his own eyes bright with angry tears. 

“What?” now it was Portia who was confused. 

“Try again,” he forced out a smile and stepped closer to his wife, his hands reaching out in a conciliatory gesture. “This time we can put right everything that went wrong with Charissa. I can be the father I should have been to her, and you can have the son you always wanted.”

Suddenly, every muscle in Face’s body was tight once more and his heart was pounding in fear against his ribs. He glanced at Portia, wondered how she would react to that statement and watched as she dropped her head a tired, “David...” washing over her lips. Both men waited in taut silence before she finally raised her head once more. “They aren’t our children,” she whispered. “We’ve had our turn and now it’s Templeton’s.”

David shook his head furiously. “No, he doesn’t want them. Despite what he says, he doesn’t want them, otherwise why would he leave them and go in-country? This is our chance to do it better!”

Portia held his hopeful stare. “I don’t want to,” she said quietly but with an authority that took the very edge off Face’s panic. “I’ve done my mothering, and now I’m too old.” David’s expression fell and she took a step towards him, taking hold of his hand. “I want to be a Granny,” she whispered. “I want to take them to the zoo and the park and the theatre. I want to buy them too much ice-cream and frivolous treats. I want to go to Little League finals and dance competitions. I want to have them to stay over and then hand them back again the very next morning. I want to have all the good things every once in a while and then be able to play bridge and golf and meet my friends for lunch and go on vacation when I want to. I want to stay in bed and read or go shopping all day or drink brandy until the early hours. I’ve worked hard in my life David, and so have you. Why can’t we enjoy our retirement?” 

For just a second Face thought that she’d done it, that David was going to capitulate and this whole horrific scene would be over, but then, just as his pulse rate was beginning to drop, David wrenched his hand from Portia’s and stepped back. “No,” he whispered, the venom still in his voice. “She wouldn’t want him to have them. We need to make a stand here and do what is right for Charissa!”

Slowly, Portia just shook her head. “Well, you will have to do it alone then, David, because I don’t agree with you,” they stared at each other. “In fact, you should think very carefully about this, because if you do decide to go through with it, not only will I not support you, you will actually find me standing with Templeton.” In silence they stared at each other until Portia stepped away, her eyes wet and made for the door. “And now,” she told him, her voice trembling with impending tears, “I am going to walk to the park and see my grandson. If you see sense, you know where I am, otherwise, don’t come near me.”

With that she briefly touched Face’s fingers before rushing out of the front door, letting it bang loudly behind her as she ran up the path. 

In the silence that remained, Face stared at the floor while a dumbstruck David watched Portia until she was out of sight of the front windows, then he moved, his hand shooting out and grabbing hold of Face’s forearm in a grip so tight it hurt. 

“You bastard...” he whispered, his eyes burning in anger. “Is no woman immune to your lying charm? Even my own _wife_?”

Face moved at once, dropping his elbow, twisting his arm and flicking David onto his back on the hard floor before taking a step away, his chest heaving in his efforts to stay calm. “For the sake of Charissa’s memory I’m going to ignore that,” he whispered, “just like I’m going to ignore most of the other crap you’ve spouted this morning. But if you ever come near me or my son or my daughter again, you are going to get far, _far_ more than you bargained for.” David sat up, wincing and holding his elbow as Face headed for the door, but just as he got to the hallway, he stopped and turned back around. “Oh, and if I hear of anything unpleasant happening to Portia, you’re gonna wished you’d never been born, you understand me?”

Without waiting for a reply, he turned and stalked out into the garden, slamming the screen door behind him as he went. 

____________________

David collected his thoughts as he scrambled to his feet and headed straight out of the front door, stalking towards his car with his face as dark as thunder. He never quite made it that far though, as a large shape suddenly stepped out from behind one of the apple trees in the front yard and blocked his path.

“Colonel Sosa,” Hannibal greeted him, “nice to see you after all this time.”

“Fuck off, Smith,” Sosa ground. “Don’t think I don’t see for one minute your marks all over this. That trained dog of yours hasn’t got the wit to sort this mess out without you.”

For a moment Hannibal was silent, watching the man in front of him, letting some of his own anger ebb away. “You do Face an injustice,” he finally replied. “You always have done and so did your daughter. He’s twice the man you will ever be, and are you surprised he’s fought to keep hold of his own children? Isn’t that what he’s done the whole time?”

Sosa shook his head. “He’s done whatever you’ve told him to do just to make my life a misery,” he shot back instead. 

Hannibal sighed. “David, you have to let this go,” his voice was so quiet it could hardly be heard over the rustling of the leaves. “It’s not what the children want, it’s not what your wife wants, it’s not what Charissa would have wanted – all you are doing is hurting your family.”

“That little shit isn’t part of my family!”

Aware that he was fighting a lost cause Hannibal took a step away. “He is,” he said firmly. “Despite what either of you actually want, he is, and you have those children in common. He’s willing to play the game, why aren’t you?” Without giving time for an answer, he pushed on. “If anyone gets left out in the cold here, Sosa, I guarantee that it won’t be Face, you might want to think about that,” and then he turned away, heading back to the house and Face.

“I won’t let you win on this one, Smith!” Sosa’s voice rang across the garden. “You might think you still have the upper hand after Desert Storm, but I guarantee you haven’t.”

Stopping in his tracks, Hannibal turned around, his eyes narrowed threateningly. “If I find that all the shit you have heaped on my boy back there is because of a grudge you’re still carrying from Desert Storm,” he shook his head. “I won’t be impressed.”

Sosa stepped towards him. “You tried to get me Court Martialed,” he hissed.

“I tried to find out why ten of my men were killed in a chopper that should never have even been in the sky,” Hannibal shot back. 

“It was none of your business.”

Hannibal knew that this whole conversation was a non-starter. The issues had never been resolved back in their day and they sure as hell weren’t going to get fixed now. “Any issue you have with me,” he said, the threat clear in his voice, “stays with me. Not Face and sure as hell not those kids. You want a pissing contest over this, David? You’ll regret it. I promise you that.”

Sosa laughed. “You think your threats scare me anymore than those made by your house boy?”

Hannibal turned his back. “If they don’t, then you’re a fool,” he answered and walked away, leaving Sosa stewing in the yard.

The house was empty, but a glance out of the French windows at the back showed Face sitting on the seat of the swing, his legs stretched out in front of him, his phone in his hand. He looked up as he heard Hannibal’s approach and forced a flat smile out from beneath his red rimmed eyes. 

“Hey, boss,” there was a shaky edge to his voice as well. “You just missed Charissa’s parents.”

“I saw them,” he leaned up against the fence post. “I heard most of your conversation from outside.” Face paled slightly at that and shifted his eyes to stare at the mud where the grass had been worn away under his feet. “I hope I didn’t overstep the mark there, kid,” Hannibal lowered his voice. “I just wanted to be near if you needed me, but it seems you were doing fine on your own.”

Face let out a half hearted laugh. “I can’t even remember what I said,” he admitted.

“You said everything you should have said, you did good, kid, I’m proud of you.”

Silence fell as Face rocked himself slowly on the swing and Hannibal wondered whether to mention what Portia had told him about Sosa and Lopez, but before he had the chance, Face spoke again. “I’ve just spoken to BA,” he said quietly. “I asked him to come down and be with his mom. I didn’t want her on her own if David tried something.”

“They alright?”

“Yeah. He’s at the park with Murdock and Adele now. Portia turned up but she’s just talking to Adele and playing with Jonathan.”

Hannibal moved, crouching in the space between Face’s knees. “This will be okay,” he said quietly, his hands on hard thighs. “It will _all_ be okay.”

Face looked up at him and Hannibal was disappointed at the fear he saw in his boy’s face. “What if he tries to get the kids off me? What if he gets a lawyer? What if he outs us, boss? What if he uses that against us?”

“Shhh,” Hannibal leaned up and pressed a brief kiss on Face’s lips, silencing him for now. “None of that will happen,” he said confidently. “This was a power play that’s gone badly wrong. He never really wanted to take the kids off you. If you’d said yes, then it wouldn’t have been him looking after them it would have been Portia, and you heard what she’s said on all of this.” Face held his eyes, desperate to believe. “Kid, he’s been trying to beat you down, all the time you’ve known him, you know this and you also know you’ve got the upper hand now. If he wants to see the kids, and he does, because in his own way he loves them, then he has to play by your rules. And he will,” Hannibal smiled. “How could anyone resist Sophia’s charms when she turns them on full? And Portia,” he whistled through his teeth. “I think we can see where Sosa got her fight from, hey, kid?” 

Face let out another half laugh at that and leaned forward, his head on Hannibal’s shoulder. “I should have realised that my life was just too good to last,” he muttered and sighed as he felt Hannibal’s hand creep up into his hair. 

“It’s going to last, baby,” he whispered. “I swear to you it will. This is a blip, that’s all, David will come to his senses.”

They stayed in silence for few minutes, the sun warming their limbs, the breeze lifting their hair, until Face pulled back, his eyes a little steadier.

“You ready to go fetch your boy?” Hannibal asked him. “I know we promised Momma a lunch out, but I reckon we’ll have two more mouths to feed by now. Three maybe if Portia comes along.”

Face glanced down at his watch. “Well, Sophia’s done in an hour. Why don’t we wait for her and make it a family trip?”

Hannibal smiled at those words, a huge smile that warmed Face from the inside out. “A family trip? Yeah. I like the sound of that.” He got to his feet, grunting at the stiffness in his legs before reaching a hand down to Face and hauling him upright as well, straight into his arms. “I love you,” he whispered, smiling at the flush those words always brought to Face’s cheeks.

“I love _you_ ,” Face replied, the sincerity in his tone making Hannibal’s heart pound.

For a second they just stood, letting the world move around them, then with a quick squeeze Hannibal dropped his hands and turned on his heel. “Let’s go then,” he said heading back to the house. “We walking to the park or driving?” 

“Walking,” Face answered following in his wake. “Surely you’re not too old for a turn around the block yet are you, old man?” he teased.

Hannibal threw a dirty look over his shoulder and then put on a burst of speed, heading for the passageway at the side of the house that lead around to the front, Face hot on his heels. They jostled for space all the way down, and then as soon as they were out in the open of the front yard, Face made a break for the corner, vaulting over the fence and onto the sidewalk as Hannibal bent his head and doubled his speed whilst sticking to his more traditional route. He got a last glimpse at the look of triumph that Face shot his way as he disappeared around the corner and couldn’t stop his own grin of pure happiness that flourished as he concentrated on closing a gap that he knew he’d never quite manage.

His words to Face had been nothing but the truth – he was sure that David Sosa would reconsider his position very quickly once he could see he was on his own. This good life they had, it was like an old Chevy - built to last. He smiled at that analogy, picturing how it would make Face frown and Murdock laugh, determining to share it with BA as soon as possible. Then he suddenly struck off at an angle deciding to cut across a few empty back yards and make it to the park before Face that way. It was as he cleared the second fence and spotted his little family gathered around the swings talking and laughing and heard Face’s outraged shouts behind him, that he was hit by a wave of happiness so fierce it made him feel like his heart would burst. He watched as Murdock handed a giggling Jonathan over to Portia then slowed to let Face catch him again. This was the best his life had ever been, better than he’d ever hoped it would be and it was all down to Face and his team.

And then it was later that night, when their guests had finally gone home and David had turned up with flowers for Portia and an offer of a lift back to their hotel, when the kids were in bed and the dishwasher was whirring away, when Hannibal, moulded to Face’s back, their skin, damp with sweat, almost fused together, when his hand was wrapped around the column of hot flesh he so adored – it was at that exact point that he knew – he was the luckiest damn bastard ever to walk the earth. But then, only seconds later as he came into that tight, grasping heat, he realised that it was actually only going to get better and better with every second they were together. Built to last.


End file.
